I’m sure she’d be happy to help. She and I talked about you coming over to hang it for me. Or can you call Holly? I bet he’d come over.
Maybe this is a bad idea. Maybe I can just leave it in my studio and take Carter upstairs to see it. Thenhecan help me hang it and I can be there to make sure everything goes exactly according to plan.
Miles
Stop worrying. I’ll figure it out. He’s going to love it, Sarah. You did good.
Not exactly the most effusive compliment, but coming from Miles, it means a lot.
“What has you looking so serious?” Carter says, stepping up behind me. He lifts his hands and brushes my hair away from my neck, then leans down to press a trail of kisses over my exposed shoulder.
I quickly scramble to put away my phone. “Nothing. Just looking at new pictures Anna sent over of the girls.”
“And they made you frown?”
“Was I frowning?” I say, voice a little higher than it should be. “I was probably just missing them.” I spin around, looping my arms around his neck as his hands settle onto my waist. He just got out of the shower after going for a run, andhe smells delicious. His sun-kissed skin is warm and soft, the hair at his nape still damp.
“Hmm. Can I see the pictures?” he asks, a teasing glint in his eye.
“Of course you can,” I say, and I reach for my phone. Luckily, Anna reallydidsend photos this morning, so it isn’t hard to pull them up. I scroll through several pictures of the girls splashing in Miles and Anna’s pool. Charlie is with them, red hair sparkling in the sun, and all three have enormous smiles on their faces. There’s also a photo of four-month-old Fiona, brown eyes wide as she smiles at the camera.
Fiona is thesweetestbaby. Easy and good-natured. She’s a much better sleeper than either of the other girls were, which means Anna is getting better sleep too. She’s still had a little bit of depression, which we expected, but awareness and support has made it a lot easier to juggle than it was the last time around.
Carter looks at the photos, his expression softening. He loves his new nieces almost as much as they love him. “Those are fun,” he says. “It’s lucky you had them so easily accessible.” He gives me a pointed look. “Is everything okay with your brother?”
I huff. “Carter Williamson, would you just let me have this secret, please? I only need to keep it for about eighteen more hours, then you’ll know exactly why I was texting my brother. But I’m not going to tell you right now.”
He grins, then leans down and kisses away my annoyance. “Sorry,” he says. “I was really just messing with you. Have you happened to check your email today?”
I lift my eyebrows. “Should I?”
His mouth moves to my jawline, his hands lifting to tilt my head just so, exposing my neck. “They scheduled ourimmigration hearing,” he says, his breath whispering across my skin. “Do you think we’ll be able to convince them we’re in love?”
I close my eyes, goosebumps skittering across my skin as he kisses his way to my earlobe.
“I don’t know,” I manage to say. “I’m not sure we have much chemistry.”
He chuckles before moving his mouth to mine one more time.
When all of this started, we spent so much time worrying about immigration, trying to make everything look legitimate. It feels silly that we were so concerned when we were already so close to falling in love.
I lean into Carter, deepening the kiss in a way that makes him grip my hips, tugging me against him. It’s time for dinner, and my stomach is already rumbling, but asking me to step out of Carter Williamson’s embrace is like asking a flower to turn away from the sun. It goes against every instinct. I think a part of me has known that from the beginning. I belongright here.
“If I couldn’t hear your stomach grumbling,” Carter says, his voice low and gravelly, “I’d already have you back in bed.”
I smile against his mouth. “Feed me now. We’ll have time later.”
We have an amazing dinner. Then an amazing moonlit walk along a shoreline trail. Then we come back to our cottage, and Carter opens all the windows so he can make love to me while the sea breeze tickles our skin.
After, I lay cocooned in his arms and fiddle with Carter’s wedding band, spinning it in a circle around his ring finger. I lift my head, propping my chin on his bare chest. His eyes are closed, his expression peaceful.
“When did you know you wanted our relationship to be real?” I ask. “Was there a specific moment?”
He opens his eyes. They’re a deeper blue in the dim light. In the sun, they look more like the sky right at the edge of the horizon, but right now, they’re the color of the ocean outside. I can’t decide which shade I like more.
He seems to consider my question, his hand tracing lazy circles across the skin on my back. “I knew I was into you when I wiped cupcake frosting off your nose in Anna’s pantry,” he says.
“The day we met?”
